GEORGE and REBECCA sit at a table looking at their menus and trying to figure out what to eat.

GEORGE

So, I’ve been thinking about the
press release for ‘A Small Hiccup’
and I think that it should be a
script. Maybe even a conversation
between two people.
(beat)
What do you think?

REBECCA

How about between you and me?

GEORGE

Yeah, that could work. I want it
to be funny – and maybe we could
be talking about this script,
and we could get confused about
what it is we are really doing –
each having different ideas.
You could say something funny.

REBECCA

Really?
(beat)
I don’t think that sounds very
reasonable George. Being
confused about the press release
is the last thing you want, people
will already be confused enough
by your newspaper… and me?…
funny? Why don’t we try to confuse
the audience with what the press
release is doing, not what it’s
saying. Maybe you could mention
something about when you were
going to call the show ‘An
Infinitesimal Cough’ and treat
each iteration of the project
like a section of a pop song…
That would be funny…

GEORGE

And then I thought better of it.
How do you mean, ‘confuse the
audience with what the press
release is doing…’?

REBECCA

Well, we make it obvious that
it’s scripted. Self aware.

GEORGE

Oh, I get it. So that the
conversation sounds forced.
That could be really interesting
tone and the implications of it.
I’ve been reading all these
linguistic journals we could
reference.

REBECCA

Oh, that wasn’t what I was
thinking. I guess we got that
misunderstanding in….
No – the actual text. Maybe
it should be this conversation.
We’ve been aware of our aims
and super straightforward,
if we could write a script like
that it would be the self-aware
thing I was talking about. It
could work…

FADE OUT.

Written by Rebecca Anne Peters and George Vasey 2013

Is it always good to talk?

‘A Small Hiccup’ is a traveling exhibition, events programme, publication and online commission exploring diseased language, curated by George Vasey.